Crowdsourcing Week is hosting a series of Twitter chats as we head to into the CSW 2014 Global Conference in Singapore, April 7-11, 2014. Next up we’re talking with leading experts like Nanjira Sambuli, Patrick Meier and Ollie Halimatussadiah on some relevant applications in crowdsourcing, ranging from citizen and humanitarian services to entrepreneurship opportunities.

#Crowdchat is a great way to join in on the conversation, gain visibility and connect with like-minded professionals. If you are a thought leader or a practitioner on the crowd economy or just plain curious about collaboration in the digital world, we want to hear from you! Tune in for these discussions:

#Crowdchat: The Crowdsourcing Approach to Data Collection

Nanjira Sambuli is a mathematician, new media strategist and technology enthusiast based in Nairobi, Kenya, who has worked on citizen awareness campaigns all across Africa. She has worked with organizations such as UNEP, Oxfam GB and Global Power Shift, on their pan-African and international new media-based campaigns. On the technology front, Nanjira is the editor of Afrinnovator’s Innovative Africa: The new face of Africa. Nanjira is currently a research manager at iHub, leading the Governance & Technology pillar, where she has developed a framework for the viability of election-based crowdsourcing.

Nanjira is passionate about Africa and believes that, “Africa is not poor, just mismanaged”.

Patrick Meier (PhD) is an internationally recognized thought leader on the application of new technologies for crisis early warning, humanitarian response and resilience. He presently serves as Director of Social Innovation at the Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI) where he develops and prototypes Next Generation Humanitarian Technologies using Social Computing, Big Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Patrick is also a UNICEF Humanitarian Innovations Fellow, a Rockefeller Foundation and PopTech Fellow, a Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) Fellow, a National Geographic Emerging Explorer and a member of the Academy of Achievement (AoA). He blogs regularly at iRevolution

Below are some of the questions we will be asking Patrick on the #crowdchat,

How has humanitarian response to crisis changed in the social-media age?

Who is a digital humanitarian?

Tell us a bit about your upcoming book.

What do humanitarian makes sense of “Big Data” during disasters?

What are some examples of the humanitarian technology projects you are working on?

What are some innovative technologies apps that come to mind in this space today?

What are the main issues in Asia? Are there any key players pioneering this work there?

What support framework is needed to make this work, especially in Asia?

#Crowdchat: Crowd Economy Opportunities in Indonesia

Ollie Halimatussadiah is a serial entrepreneur and techpreneur, and also member of our Advisory Board. She is the CTO & co-founder of online bookstore Kutukutubuku.com and the first online self publishing in Indonesia NulisBuku.com.

Ollie is deeply passionate about writing and the power of the community. She has initiated Nulis Buku Club (writing club, now spreading in more than 20 cities in Indonesia), #StartupLokal (biggest community for startup founders, investors, and startup enthusiasts), Girls in Tech Indonesia (community for women in technology or simply love technology) and last but not least, Bincang Edukasi (community for grassroot movement in education).

We will be chatting with Ollie about entrepreneurship and community building. There will be a lot of fantastic information for sure.

Tell us a bit about your entrepreneurial journey

How is entrepreneurship changing today? Give us some examples.

Tell us about Nulisbuku and the impact it is creating in Indonesia

How can entrepreneurs take advantage of crowdsourcing principles?

Crowdsourcing has been integral to Asian culture as in “gotong royong”. How can it go mainstream for greater good?

Track and save the #crowdchat feed to get ahead on the conversations and questions from our community. We are part of a global movement and we understand our chat timing may not work for everybody so we encourage you to submit questions using the hashtag #crowdchat. We will ensure you are part of the conversation too!

Send us your questions via the hashtag #crowdchat before the chat to help us ensure you get adequate answers.

About The Author

Priti Ambani is the Global Media Director at Crowdsourcing Week, a thought leader and prominent writer on social enterprises, start-ups and web 2.0 businesses. Previously, Priti grew Ecopreneurist, a nascent green business blog into a notable social business resource as site director and managing editor. Working from the ground up, she has developed successful business and communications strategies for impact organizations that aim to create social, environment and economic wealth. Priti is a Professional Engineer and holds a Master’s degree in Biological Resources Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park.Priti lives in the Washington DC Metro area with her husband and sons, is a lover of the outdoors, traveling and from-scratch cooking!